Sutter calls out Flames veterans again for their "comfort level"

Calgary Flames coach Darryl Sutter wasn’t holding back after his team’s latest blown lead.

Two days after benching an entire line for most of the third period, the Flames found themselves coughing up a 3-1 third-period lead to the New York Islanders on Monday night, eventually falling in overtime.

And Sutter was clear that he wasn’t all that happy with how things went down, particularly with the effort level of some of his veterans.

“There’s no kids to push anybody for jobs in training camp,” Sutter said postgame. “I think there’s a little bit of a comfort level there and guys gotta push themselves out of it.”

Calgary allowed a pair of goals 59 seconds apart in the third period to see their lead evaporate as the Islanders forced overtime and eventually sealed the win.

“I don’t think we got the type of power that we’re gonna bulldoze teams, right, you just can’t make those little mistakes,”  Sutter said. “We have the puck behind their net, up 3-1, you can’t give it back to them. And we have the puck entering their zone, and we give it back to them. So that’s what happens.”

Rasmus Andersson, Nikita Zadorov, Mackenzie Weegar, and Noah Hanifin all played upwards of 25 minutes, while Connor Mackey and Nick DeSimone played 10:09 and 9:30 respectively.

“We’re probably taxing four defencemen a lot. And you could see times in the third period there were, they were on the ice too much,” Sutter added. “And, and it was, it wasn’t nothing to do with their effort. And then with that, they’re ready to gas at times and didn’t have the execution that that certainly is right now.”

Calgary is back on the ice today when they take on the New Jersey Devils at 4 pm MT. One can only wonder what Sutter will have to say after that one.

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